We cannot allow the Christmas season to pass without posting a wassail can we? Well, yes, I suppose we can, but it is rather fun to see if I can uncover a new-to-me wassailing song each year. This year's entry is an American wassail-- because, apparently, wassailing hopped the Atlantic. (You can read about the history here and here. Wassailing apparently got caught up with the Lord of Misrule stuff that I have always found rather repulsive, but I still like the tradition and the songs tend to be fun and catchy. And I like them, and this is my blog, so I will continue to post them. So there.)
The wassail I am posting is called The Kentucky Wassail, though I have come across at least one version that changes Kentucky to Ohio. I am not sure how old this song actually is. It may have been collected by John Jacob Niles, a noted musicologist from Kentucky, or it may have been something that he wrote himself, based off older Appalachian song traditions. It has lyrics that are similar to ones found in both the Gloucestershire Wassail, and the Somerset Wassail, though it definitely has a bit more of that mountain music swing that is associated with American traditional music.
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